Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-08-18
FOR CHEESE-MAKERS.
The Sources Through Which Witches En-
ter the Cheese-vat I'm Summer.

Tne Sources Through Which Witches En-
ter the Cheese-vat I'm Summer.
]. The cows may be kept in scant
pastures without shade, the broiling
sun pouring down on their unprotect-
ed backs from morning until night
This is annoying and injurious to
health, causing feverish condition of
the system which is communicated to
the milk and aids in the development
of floating curds. The good dairyman
provides his cows with an abundance
| of shade and sees to it that they do not
have to labor all day in dried up
pasture to get scanty supply of food.
but have sufficiency to eat and time
to lie down in cool places, chew the
cud, dream and secrete good, whole
some milk.
2. Cows are too often compelled to
get their supply of water from stag
nant ponds and pools. These are
teeming with animal and vegetable
forms of life, of microscopic char
acter, which are taken into the
stomach and enter into the circu-
latory system. Experiments made
at Cornell University, some years
ago, showed that these minute organ
! isms and spores not only go into the
blood, where they are found, but into
the milk which is elaborated from the
blood, rendering it unfit for human
food. Such milk will play the very
mischief in the cheese-vat, turning out
cheeses that when cured are known as
"stinkers." Pure water and plenty of
it, is absolutely essential to the pro-
duction of sound milk.
g. In the hot season of the year the
air is full of all sorts of microscopic
life, the germs of which are floating
and settling everywhere. They are
most plentiful in stables. barnyards,
sheds. etc, and wherever there is fer
menting and decaying matter. If the
cows are MIXED in such place, these
microbes will be inhaled by the cows
and enter into the general circulation,
and thence into the milk, and they will
also fall into the milk-pails and cans,
and contaminate milk by direct con-
tact. 1t is declared by good authority
that if the cows breathe foul atmos-
phere for fifteen minutes the foulness
will show in the flavor of the milk
and injure its keeping qualities. These
microbes may not ~ once show in the
cheese-vat, but they will develop sooner
or later. and their effects will be seen
in the cheese on the ranges. There
fore, all places and their vicinities
where cows are MIXED can not be kept
too clean nor be too thoroughly deo-
dorized.
4. The milk may be injured by i'm
proper handling. It may not be prop
erly cooled at night. and, therefore.
faint or sour. 1t may be too closely
confined in the cans while hot, and in
this way become tainted. 1t may be
carried to the factory in cans not prop
erly ventilated and be exposed for
long time on the road to the hot rays
of the sun, which will develop faint
The hot milk of the mornings milking
may be poured into the cold nights
milk, thus fastening the decom posi-
ton of the latter by raising the tenn
perature, and through this tainting and
souring the whole batch. Care should
be taken to keep the nights and morn
ing's milk separate. unless the latter
is thoroughly cooled before the two
are mixed. The other causes of early
faint and decomposition should, of
course, be avoided and guarded against.
s. Ferments and taints may collect
in the sharp corners and crevices of
the watts and implements used in the
cheese factory. The strainers and con-
ductors may not be properly washed
and scalded. the thermometer even
may become loaded with injurious
germs, and so of every thing that
comes in contact with the milk or
aurd. not forgetting every faucet The
rennet preparation may get tainted
and unfit to use if not kept in cool
place. The floors may become sources
of mischief, and ought to be kept scru-
pulously clean. All sink-holes and
pools around the factory, all spouts
and places where they may spill and
become corrupt, should be watched and
carefully cleansed. The invisible
forces are active, and will put in their
work wherever they can get chance.
Be on your guard against their insidi-
Gus entry.
6. After all is said and done, if your
curing-room is not right, the witches
may play the mischief with you there.
The best of curds may be spoiled by the
worst of curing-rooms-one in which
the temperature rises and falls with the
changes outside. The curing-room
should be SO constructed as to be under
perfect control of temperature. and be
kept at not higher than seventy de-
grees nor lower than sixty-fve. But
very few curing rooms are of this char
acter, and this accounts for large
share of the poor or Indifferent cheese
thrown upon the market, while entail
ing heavy losses upon all whose income
depends upon the receipts of the fac
tory. All curing-rooms should have
double walls, with two or three. or
more, dead-air spaces and double VIM
dows and properly constructed ventil-
ators. In the absence of these essen.
tials, the best that the cheese-worker
can do is to open his windows at night
letting in the cool air. and carefully
keep them closed through the heat of
the day. The Importance of curing
rooms so constructed that the temporal
ture in them can be properly controlled
is not yet understood by the great ma
jority of dairymen. Close attention
to this is one of the desiderata of the
day.-RuraL NeW Yorker.